Music to the soul

Bob Dylan's albums have to grow on you. He is almost 70 but still doing 169 concerts per year - on the road!Amazing rambler!Amazing energy!And he won an Oscar recently for a movie theme song.
They asked him once, how do you remember all the words to your songs?
'It's easy,'he replied in his non-chalant way,'a song is like a path in a field: once you find it you just walk on. A good song walks by itself. It's a memory and you just relive it.'
When you buy a Dylan album, you listen and think, this is nothing special. You put it away for a while. Then you listen again, and later on again. And then you find it grew on you. Some of the phrases, some of the tunes, some of the rhythms got stuck somewhere, inside, in your memory bank. It made a pathway in your sub-conscious. His songs all sound like, 'I've heard that somewhere before.'But they are new, they just have a ancient sound to them.
In one of his latest albums, Modern Times, he sings Workingman's Blues. There is a phrase that sort of stick out in the song:'sometimes no one wants what you've got, sometimes you can't give it away!'
at first it sounds like you have heard that phrase before, but you haven't, not quite like Dylan expresses it with his rusty aged voice.
Life has a way to creep into your heart unnoticed - like a Dylan song. You don't quite know if you chose to remember something, but when you search your heart, there it is, loud and clear, almost like a label. You don't always know why. But if you look back on your life certain things just stuck in your mind.
Looking back on my life as a commando in the South African army, I remember things I did not try to remember. I forgot some things I thought I would remember. The same with school, the same with distant family members and friends.
Songs have got a way to remind you of what is inside you, where you were when you first heard it, it triggers a memory that got stuck inside and you have to stop and consider it for a moment, it speaks, it echoes and it resounds in your soul, it haunts you, it revives you, it excites you, it gives you comfort and courage to carry on.
That is the power of music. We all need songs in our lives.
David praised God who gave him songs in the night. In the worst time of our lives God gives us songs to strengthen our resolve and to remind us of what He has buried deep inside of our spirits.
Let us keep on singing, humming tunes, whistling while we work (except the glass blower, like my brother-in-law Murray always jokes!)
Let us put some melody in our lives today and in someone else's life. Stop and sing. Listen to a good old tune. Don't worry if no one else likes it. It is meant for you. Only you. It is what your soul needs now. It is a vitamin tablet for your soul.
Shakespeare said, If music is the food of love, play on, play on!

Blues Band in Benin

Harvester Blues Band backed me in the great all night concert in Nigeria a week ago! What an experience! I always wanted to do blues music in church, but the church world wasn't ready for it back then. In worldly circles my blues were too preachy for their liking so I never really fitted in anywhere!
But finally the dream came true - in Nigeria!
Pastor Godwins arranges an all night worship conference every year in November and all the world should be invited to it. It is a blast and a blessing all packaged in one! It is held in the athletic indoor stadium in Benin city. People come from four different countries to participate and attend. The best music equipment is hired from Lagos and the musicians practice all year for the event.
The choirs and solo artists all blend into the flow of the evening and the people are so responsive: they sing along and praise the Lord, but also enjoy the music because many of them are trained musicians.
The sheer artistry of pianists like Dr. Chidi and Romeo is absolutely stunning to hear and then Benin has their own Scott Joplin that entertains the crowd every year with lively syncopation.
The entrance fee is purchasing the DVD of last years concert. About 7000 people filled the auditorium and hundreds were standing outside.
When it was time for us to perform we went on stage that was especially built for the occasion and settled at the instruments: Aje behind the drums, Greg with his own harmonica mike, Dale plugged in his guitar and JP tuned his bass. Leigh was ready to do back up vocals and dance! I moved in behind the electric keyboard.
We started with a slow, solo number: Man Alone. Every time I got to the part: you were a man alone, but now...you can count on me! The audience sang along.
The next number was Preacher Man Blues. It is a fast blues song and young people everywhere got up and danced as we sang. They repeated the phrase, 'Preacher man blues' with me everytime! Then we did, 'Memory of me' that starts with the words, 'If I go away...'Pastor Godwins said the song made him cry because the song made him think about what he would leave behind and how he would be remembered one day. The last song we did was 'How can I say thank you' that starts off slowly but picks up the beat as we go along. It could not be recorded with a click track in the microphones - if you know what I mean.
We sweated so much in the 26 Celcius night that Greg, our blues harp player became known as our very own 'water feature' on stage!
Oh, how we laughed and had fun together on the 6 day adventure! But we also had many deep and serious times, sharing life experiences and explaining our understanding of the way the Lord works with each of us. Sometimes we sat around the lunch table for several hours and sometimes we shed tears...
On Sunday after the concert four of us preached in different churches. I preached about 'The Man Born Blind' in the Believers Church where pastor Samuel Osaghae and his wife Gladys are the overseers. I got down into the sand where the people were sitting on wooden benches and smeered the red mud that I made with spit, water and dust on my face to demonstrate the mud balls Jesus made for the blind man. When he sent him to go and wash in the pool of Siloam he became 'a sent one' and was no longer a beggar! The people praised the Lord when the blind man got his sight!
How else could I describe a tour with the Harvester Blues Band? So much happened in five days that it would take volumes to try to tell it all...Jesus did so much that all the libraries of the world could not contain all the things he had done!